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The HAL Tejas is a lightweight multirole fighter developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta-wing design powered by a single engine.

It came from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India’s ageing MiG-21 fighters.

The first production variant of the Tejas (LSP-1) flew on June 2008. The Tejas completed 1,000 test flights by January 2009 with more than 530 hours of inflight testing.

It achieved a speed of over 1,350 kilometres per hour (840 mph) during its sea level flight trials in 2009.

By June 2010, the Tejas had also completed the second phase of hot weather trials.

The objective of the hot weather trials was to prove that the aircraft was in an IOC configuration with the weapon system and sensors integrated.

The sea trials of the aircraft are also being carried out.LSP-5 with IOC standard equipment took to skies on 19 November 2010.

The trainer variant prototype took to the skies in November 2009. In December 2009, the Indian government sanctioned 8,000 crore (US$1.46 billion) to begin production of the fighter jet for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.

The Indian Navy has a requirement of 50 Tejas aircraft and the first prototype, NP-1 was rolled out in July 2010.

Initial Operating Clearance (IOC) for the Tejas was awarded on 10 January 2011 by Defence Minister A K Antony to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal P V Naik.